Loose Ends
by SpitfireUSN
Summary: People say you can't kill a ghost. Is that really true though? Has Ghost truly met his end? Or will come back to haunt the man that tried to kill him? He could be considered a loose end that was never tied up. Either way, Shepherd will pay for what he did. (T for language)
1. The Op

**_Hey there readers, I'm Spitfire and this is a story called Loose Ends, but you already knew that. Just like in my story ARC Survivor, this is how I'll be doing my author's notes! The majority if not all of this story will be through Ghost's point of view and just like with many of my stories we get right to the action, because I love action. So, on to the real business, I like to give proper synopsis of all my stories (minus ARC Survivor mainly because I couldn't think of one) so I'll get to that and then you can get to the actual story!_**

**_Thanks for Reading, Fly High Aim Higher,_**

**_~Spitfire out_**

**Synopsis: **

_To General Shepherd there's only one way to tie up a loose end, death. Lt. Simon "Ghost" Riley and Sgt. Gary "Roach" Sanderson end up as loose ends to Shepherd and he intends to deal with it. He doesn't want the truth to get out but the Task Force 141 is too good to go down like that. Or are they? This couldn't possibly be the end, could it? Surely the one shot wasn't enough to take Ghost down. A simple mistake, a mistake Shepherd made, he underestimated the Task Force; he didn't look when he aimed, he didn't tie the loose end tightly enough and it frayed. Now, the world may know the truth it deserves. _

**The Op**

This was supposed to be simple. Get in, find and kill Makarov, if he's not there, find some intel to help us out, get out. Resistance was expected but nothing like what they came at us with. Instead of a few squads of high-class guards we found an army waiting for us. That made things near impossible when we were protecting the DCM while the files on Makarov's computer were loaded onto it. Makarov having escaped us, there was no sign of him other than the army. Scarecrow and Ozone died in the fight to protect it. I hoped whatever we found on the DCM was good, really good. Roach and I were the only ones left when the transfer finished. Well, excluding Archer and Toad who were covering us from a cliff overlooking the property using their sniper kits.

Archer was the Task Force's elite sniper. Toad had medical training but he was also a pretty good shot so he doubled as a sniper. They were good guys, Scarecrow and Ozone were too but they were the pranksters that always got into trouble, still, they were friendly and did what they did to get laughs out of the guys.

I ordered Roach to grab the DCM and he did, tucking it away into his bag as we ran, the army advancing on us. Roach ran and I covered him. Roach was still pretty new but he had grown on me, he was like a brother. I made sure to cover his six and he covered mine. I stopped for a few seconds to get a shot on a couple snipers, Archer and Toad helped me take care of the five of the guile suited Russians. I couldn't help letting my thoughts wander as I ran to catch up to Roach. It was pretty hot out and the uniform fire proof jacket that we were all forced to wear wasn't helping. I saw Roach shoot down a guy with an RPG. Then things went downhill. A mine blew up about five feet from Roach. He flew about ten feet to the side and he didn't get up, I could tell he was out cold.

I hurried over to him as he was waking up, trying to get back to his feet. I went to his back and grabbed him by the vest and started dragging him to the LZ while he covered my six. I could hear him firing the AK-47 in short bursts, it sounded like he was taking one shot at a time. I counted off the shots in my head until the magazine he had loaded ran out. He didn't reload; he was starting to pass out again. I heaved him up and got one arm around my shoulders and held him up.

"Come on, get up! We're almost to the LZ!" I called to him as I did so.

I helped him forward as the CH-47 landed, the ramp already down and Gen. Shepherd stepped out, "Do you have the DCM?" he asked as we neared him.

"We've got it, sir!" I answered quickly.

"Good, that's one less loose end," Shepherd said, supporting Roach's other side and pulling his pistol out, putting it against Roach's gut, and pulling the trigger.

"No!" I called as Roach fell from my grasp.

I started to pull my rifle out to take Shepherd out, he was a traitor. The pistol was now pointed at me but Shepherd was still staring at Roach. The trigger was pulled and I blacked out with a searing pain engulfing my body.


	2. Down but not Out

_**Thanks for the review klondike24680! Only about half an hour after posting and I've already complement, that means a lot to me! As far as my detailing goes, I honestly think I could use some practice, but I've been writing for 5+ years so it stands to reason that I shouldn't… Okay, I'm turning into a windbag so I'm gonna go ahead and get to the next chapter! Also, I should go ahead and say that most of this is going to be through the snipers' eyes as they see what happened to Ghost and Roach.**_  
_**Thanks for Reading, Fly High Aim Higher**_  
_**~Spitfire out**_

**Archer's P.O.V**

I saw everything. I saw Roach get taken down by a mine, Ghost dragging him to safety and eventually pulling him to his feet. I saw Shepherd and the CH-47. Shepherd's betrayal, that's what got me. I was stunned, too stunned to react. Toad on the other hand was about to jump over the cliff and run to the aid of the fallen soldiers as Shepherd had one of his men poor gasoline over Roach's still body and flick a lit cigar on him, igniting the fluid as he walked away.

I pulled myself together and covered Toad as he ran down to the small burning patch where Ghost and Roach were lying unmoving. Ghost had been shot in the right shoulder and the bullet had gone down through his body and exited out his lower back to the left. Roach had taken a point blank bullet to the gut, his chances were very slim.

Toad made it over to them in record time, pulling Roach out of the fire first, then Ghost. He started patting out the fire that clung to their bodies and clothes.

"Archer!" Toad called hurriedly over the team com-link, "Call in a med-evac now!"

"Already on it, Toad," I answered, cutting the team link and switching over to MacTavish's com set, "Captain, Roach and Ghost are down and in critical, we need an evac now!" I called in a somewhat panicked voice.

"I read you Archer, we're sending Nikoli to get you out," Captain MacTavish answered calmly.

"Tell him to double time it over here," I said in a rushed tone as I ran down to where Toad had set Roach and Ghost to temporarily patch their injuries.

I cut the transmission and switched back to the team link, "Toad, give me a sit-rep," I said as calmly as I could.

"They're both critical but Roach is worse off. Severe burns on both. I think Ghost will make it but I'm not sure about Roach, he was already wounded when Shepherd shot him," Toad answered in a quick yet calm voice that he always used when he was in medic mode as the team often called it.

Toad was supposed to be full time medic but when my sniper partner had been killed we found out that Toad was almost as good a shot as I was so he doubled as both my partner and a medic. He switched between jobs almost seamlessly but it was easy to tell which one he was more focused on.

"Nikoli's on his way, we'll get them out of here and back to base," I said coming up next to him and resting my hand on the medic's shoulder.

"Hope he gets here in time, not much I can do for them right now," Toad said with a sigh.

I heard a faint groan as Ghost slowly started moving, he appeared to be trying to get his eyes open and his body to corporate. There was another pained groan from him and then he lay still. I could see the rise and fall of his chest but it was shallow. Roach looked like he wasn't breathing at all.

"Archer, come in," MacTavish's voice came over the com-link as Toad worked on Roach.

"I read you, Captain," I answered, turning away from the gruesome scene as Toad tried to get the bullet and shrapnel out of Roach.

"Nikoli is two clicks out; you need to pop smoke so he knows where to land," MacTavish said quickly, "how are they doing?"

"Ghost woke up then passed out again soon after, Toad's working on Roach right now," I answered as I pulled a red smoke grenade out of my pouch, "Smoke out!" I called over my shoulder to Toad so he wouldn't think the enemy had thrown it.

I pulled the pin and tossed the grenade close by, watching as the red smoke rose up into the sky, a beacon to the incoming pilot. When the Russian pilot landed his helicopter I helped Toad load Roach and Ghost and we were quickly off towards the base.

**Ghost's P.O.V**

I could feel myself waking up, I was weaker than I was before; I couldn't even groan this time. I could tell that I was being moved but I couldn't tell where too, though I could hear rotors of a chopper. There was less weight on my chest and arms than there should've been; suggesting that my Kevlar vest and the upper half of my uniform were gone. There was an intense, burning pain in my shoulder and I could feel myself reacting without meaning to.

"Shit," I heard someone mutter from beside me, "Archer, reach in my bag and grab a shot of morphine, you know what to do."

From that I knew it was Toad beside me. A little bit of time passed until there was a sharp pain in the side of my neck. The pain passed quickly along with the pain in my shoulder and back.

_'What the hell happened to me?' _I asked myself.

I heard Toad mutter again followed by a pause then, "Infection's already setting in. Nikoli, can't this bird go any faster?!"

"I'm afraid not my friend, we're going as fast as we can!" a Russian voice came from nearby.

Nikoli? We were being evac'd but where was Roach.

"Hey, Archer, hold this cloth in place, keep the pressure on, I gotta see to Roach," Toad said quickly.

Ah yes, Toad was most definitely in medic mode. I finally managed a groan and forced my eyes open. Through the blurry haze I could barely make out the guile suited form of Archer leaning over me, his hands pressed firmly on my shoulder. Then I noticed that what I was seeing wasn't as dark as it should be. My shades were gone along with my mask

I groaned again as the room started spinning and I squeezed my eyes shut in a failed attempt to stop it.

"I think Ghost's getting worse, Toad," Archer said after a few minutes of silence.

"I know, but I got to stabilize Roach first, the only reason I was helping him first is the fact that he had stopped breathing," Toad said calmly and quickly.

I groaned again as I felt sweat starting to form on my brow and I could feel my body heating up with fever.

"Damn, he's burning up!" Archer exclaimed, flinching a bit.

"Hang on, I'm almost done," Toad called back.

I opened my eyes again only to feel them lull back in my head as I started to pass out again.


	3. Little Brother

**_Okay, not my best work there but it was still pretty interesting right? I mean the whole concept of Ghost being really sick and Roach being out cold, both have gunshot wounds. Is it just me that thinks all this is really epic and awesome? Well, anyway, if the P.O.V isn't marked at the beginning of the chapter, it's Ghost's if it is, well, then you'll know, makes things a lot simpler for me if I don't mark Ghost's P.O.V at the beginning of every freaking chapter… Yeah, it'd kind of annoy me… Anyway, on to chapter 3! And thanks to CaptainHall for the nice review! It's great to get so many reviews this early into this story! I'll keep pumping out the updates, I love seeing reviews!_**

**_Thanks for Reading, Fly High Aim Higher_**

**_~Spitfire out_**

**Little Brother**

I could hear the beeping that warned a missile was incoming.

"Ah! I can't dodge it! Brace yourselves!" I heard Nikoli call from the cockpit.

I knew I was still unconscious but I could hear which was weird to say the least. There were firm hands on my chest as the helicopter shook violently.

"We'll go down if we don't lose some extra weight!" Nikoli called.

"Set down, Nikoli, Archer and I can get these two back to base, you still have to get the C-130 and pick up MacTavish and Price!" I heard Toad call from right beside me.

"Good luck, my friends!" Nikoli called again.

I was picked up and moved somewhere as the chopper stopped moving. I could feel the wind from the rotors as I was moved quickly. I couldn't stop a gasp of pain from escaping me as I was set down gently, the back of my left side having too much pressure on it.

"Easy," a calm voice urged with a hand on my shoulder, "How's Roach?"

"He's fine, bleeding's stopped," another voice said as another set of hands wrapped something around my shoulder quickly, "We'll have to move fast. I'll do what I can for now but we have to hurry up and get these two back to base."

Then I heard a mixture of Russian voices all shouting quickly.

"Uh, Toad, it might be a bit late for that," I must have been starting to actually come to, now I could distinguish the differences in the voices and this one sounded like Archer, that and he had said Toad's name.

I groaned and blinked my eyes open. Archer was standing facing some unseen guys, Toad was still kneeling beside me, facing the Russians but he still had his hands over my injury.

One of the Russians spoke quickly to another, of course, having never learned Russian I didn't understand a word of it. One of them appeared in my line of site, dragging Toad away. He gave a shout of protest as he was handcuffed and the Russians eventually knocked him out as he kept struggling and shouting profanities at them.

They forced Archer to put his weapons down and go down to his knees. He was much calmer than Toad had been. He began speaking to them calmly in Russian and imitated a Russian accent. When Archer learned Russian and when he became so good at a Russian accent, I'll never know.

Another voice spoke up and my head started throbbing, this was too much Russian at once. Archer had been silenced and now the new voice was speaking with the one that was apparently in charge.

"Da, da," the larger Russian that I assumed was in charge said; finally, something I can understand.

A smaller Russian that looked similar to Nikoli came into my view and rolled me onto my side as the others walked away. I felt a sloppy patching going on over what must've been the exit wound for the bullet that had gone through my shoulder.

As soon as the others disappeared the one patching me up spoke in thickly accented English, "I'm here to help, comrades. You're safe with me and my team," he said, taking Archer's cuffs off of him.

"And who are you?" Archer asked, standing up as he pulled the duct tape off his mouth.

"I am Nikoli's brother," he answered.

Toad was starting to wake up and shout some more, making Nikoli's brother laugh a bit.

"You're friend there has quite a way with words," he joked, taking his cuffs off as well.

Archer chuckled at the comment, "Hope you got a medic with supplies," he commented.

"Uh, guys, I know I was out, but since when was there a peace treaty between us and the Russians?" Toad asked, standing up.

"Toad, he's with Nikoli," Archer answered.

"What's your name?" Toad asked suspiciously.

"Luka," he answered.

Toad looked him over suspiciously from where he stood then gave a curt nod of approval, "Fine," he said, coming over to me and kneeling by my side.

"Is there something wrong?" Luka asked.

"Yeah, his injuries got infected before I could patch him up," Toad muttered.

"We will see what we can do later, but we have to move now," Luka said, looking down at me.


End file.
